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The number of super-wealthy people in Asia-Pacific shrank last year, a study showed on Tuesday, despite the region’s resilience in the face of the global economic slump.

This year’s Asia-Pacific Wealth Report showed there were 2.4 million high-net-worth individuals in 2008, a 14.2 percent fall from the previous year.

The fall in HNWIs — people with investable assets of at least $1 million — is almost in line with the global average of 14.9 percent, the study by investment bank Merrill Lynch and financial consultant Capgemini said.

The combined wealth of the region plunged 22.3 percent to $7.4 trillion, compared with the global average decline of 19.5 percent to $32.8 trillion.

“The region’s sound macroeconomic position of 2007 and its relatively small exposure to complex financial products initially appeared to offer protection against the global economic downturn,” the report said.

“However, it soon became clear that trade and financial flows have inextricably integrated the Asia-Pacific region into the world economy and the region began to suffer as the financial crisis progressed.”

Ultra-HNWIs, or individuals with assets of at least $30 million, saw a steeper drop, of 29.6 percent to 14,300, with total wealth shrinking by more than a third.

In percentage terms, Hong Kong’s HNWI population was the hardest hit in the world, plunging 61.3 percent to 37,000. This was largely due to last year’s steep falls on the Hang Seng Index and the property market, said Stephen Corry, Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific’s investment strategist.

However, the report said the growth of the region’s super-rich population was set to pick up as markets such as China and India are forecast to grow faster than those of Latin America, which have been known as engines of growth.

“We expect China and India’s economies to expand this year and they will drive the region’s growth into the 2010-20,” said Francis Liu, Merrill Lynch’s market managing director for Greater China.

China’s HNWIs fared better than their counterparts elsewhere in the region, falling only 11.8 percent to 364,000 in 2008, thanks to a combination of closed markets and robust macroeconomic growth.

Despite the decline, China surpassed Britain to hold the fourth-largest HNWI population in the world after the United States, Japan and Germany.

The report came after Shanghai-based Hurun Report on Tuesday released a list of the 1,000 richest people in China, which included 130 dollar billionaires.

Topping the Hurun Rich List was Wang Chuanfu, the founder of rechargeable battery and electric-car maker BYD, whose fortune increased more than fivefold to $5.1 billion last year.

Unlike Wang, most of the others on the list made their fortunes in the property and stock markets — the focus of Beijing’s massive government stimulus efforts over the past year.

AFP